Toll
by Aiko Isari
Summary: [Xros Wars] AU-Canon. "The bells hadn't stopped ringing and the person in her -their- dreams was still as fog ridden and bright-eyed as they had ever been. And the name was at the tip of her tongue and forbidden." Akari-centric
1. 1

_**A/N:**_ Hi! Look another WIP. I need to stop with the WIPs. Probably not happening. This will be updated as I finish the chapters ahead of it. It's at six, so... progress!

This is for the Quintessential Quoting (Challenge!) and my quote was: "A mistake is simply another way of doing things." - Katherine Graham and the mood was angst. I guess we can see where this is going. Please enjoy everybody. This is for anybody who liked At Peace, but needed a lighter tone. Read and review!

-[XW] AU-Canon. "The bells hadn't stopped ringing and the person in her -their- dreams was still as fog ridden and bright-eyed as they had ever been. And the name was at the tip of her tongue and forbidden." Akari-centric

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_Toll_

1.

They saved the world.

Akari had to repeat those words over and over in her mind until they stuckk like magnets on a refrigerator and they never do.

We saved the world. We saved our home. Shoutmon was the King.

Over and over. They all did it, all saved the world.

But how?

That summer memory faded with the onslaught of school bells and heavy heat and frantic phone calls through time zones. None of them knew, none of them remembered exactly how, and for some reason, none of them really wanted to. A lot of things were lost that day. It was the price of power, the price of doing... whatever it was they had done.

Yet why, on her free Sundays, did she feel alone? She felt unaccomplished. What was she missing? Was there something she needed to do?

During those times, she doodled Cutemon, made up heroic adventures, pulled her brothers out of the garden, but it wasn't the same.

Perhaps, did they lose?

Wouldn't they all be dead?

Sometimes she would smile ruefully at a strangely stuffed bag full of unusual items, care items. She would be able to pack her lunch everyday and a little extra, and not know why she made another set of onigiri or had a special orange juice box.

She would try to throw her big, pink bag away. She couldn't. Just holding it would make her cry.


	2. 2

_**A/N:**_Hey guys! Just updating here and passing on that there will not be the 50+ chapters like Light for this one. this is going to be short, quick and hopefully finished before December. Hahaha, I expect too much. Let me know what you think! Thanks!~

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2.

Some days would be spent helping Yuu with his homework.

Because Nene had left, off to do things and get their father to leave them alone (or whatever her excuse was, Akari had enough siblings to know when one just simply felt wholly inadequate and didn't know what to do about it), she would take on the duty of being the younger boy's friend. Not that it was a duty, really, just something new.

It wasn't the same as that former time, no longer always accompanied by the staccato echo of fast feet against a sidewalk and bright, determined laughter, ready to face a new disaster.

It was much quieter, much more got done, but yet it felt like nothing changed. He was still a little shy, still wielding a great deal of justice. He seemed to notice too, because he would look at the space next to Akari with some befuddlement. Was something supposed to be there? Was someone?

She tried to ask, found the words trapped in her throat, and fell silent.

"Akari-san?"

She offered him a rice ball. "Yeah?"

He took it, fiddled with it, then sighed. "Are you okay?"

"I..." She would think, whenever this question was asked, very seriously about it. Was she okay? Was something wrong? "I... don't know. I feel... weird."

"I'm not a girl," he said automatically, and she laughed.

"Not that kind of weird, Yuu-kun."

Yuu shook his head. "Is it like something is missing?"

She nodded, grinning. "Like there's a hole and no one tried to hide it." Akari stopped, looked at her hands. "Yuu-kun... did we really win that fight? Are we still here?"

Yuu looked at his math paper, at her, and then at the empty space. "... I'd like to hope so, Akari-san. I really would like to think we did." His fingers kneaded against the plastic table. "If we didn't, though... how would we know?"

"How would we even know if we won?"

Akari rested her forehead against her palms. "I don't know." She paused, as if admitting this to a fellow student and former General of an army will destroy her standing in some unholy ranking. "I'm rather scared, Yuu-kun."

He, to what must be both of their surprise, placed his hand on hers. He must have been trying to be comforting, but it failed with how much his hand shook. "So am I."

She didn't care what anyone said, there was nothing soothing about being scared with someone else.

Why don't we remember?

"Well, because you don't want to."

They looked up, heads whipping around towards the study lounge doorway, but all they see is a student walking past, headphones in his ears, humming to himself.

He was nothing, a nobody. No recognition, heck his uniform signified he was at the wrong school in the first place.

Akari slumped back in her chair, head throbbing, eyes burning suddenly.

Then it vanished, and a new pep filled her system. "Come on, you can't distract me anymore. Let's do this so we can get out of here."

His face wore a puzzled frown, before exasperation took its place. "I wasn't trying to distract you!"

"Sure you weren't! Just like my brothers, honestly..."

"Hey!"


	3. 3

_**A/N:** _Thanks for the support guys! And the little issues, Djinni, which I just noticed myself. Oops. I'll fix those as soon as I can. _Light _update later tonight! Enjoy and let me know what you think!

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3.

Akari had a bad habit of dreaming vividly and not even caring about it. They would be fun stories for her family... and someone could tell them better. She knew someone who caught details better than a detective on television and listened until they knew the story better than you.

She knew someone like that... didn't she?

No... that didn't matter.

What mattered was that she couldn't see too well, and that she was dreaming.

Someone chuckled. "Do you really have to know everything?"

That was a strange question. Did she? "I have to know something at least, or I won't be able to move on."

"Move on from what?" The voice teased. It was male. She was sure of that.

"The end of that summer." The words were so immature, so dramatic, but that was the truth. It was fall, cooling to winter, but she still felt stuck in that sticky air at some moments of her life. Then she forgot them, and went right on. But the niggling feelings were just enough to be noticeable, just enough to be discomforting.

The realization struck her and she glowered. "Oi! Were you the one that made us forget?"

"I don't even know what you have to remember!" the voice said, sounding affronted. "Why would I want you to forget what I don't even know?"

"Then why are you here?"

"The same reason you're here," he said, as reasonably as some adults she might know. "whatever that reason is." He laughed. "Sorry about that."

"Well, you're no help at all." She couldn't help it, she pouted, glared, and the expressions were easy, nostalgic. She wore this look often when dealing with this person. But why?

The other only laughed. "That's your own fault." They paused, almost like they were frowning. "No wait... it's not your fault. You're just the spare parts."

They paused again. "Oops that sounded bad, didn't it?"

"Damn right!"

He laughed. "Sorry, sorry! But it's fine! Everything is all right in the end!"

She put her hand on her hips. "It is not all right! I don't know who you are and you make claims like that!"

He laughed again. "That's why I'm saying it's all right!"

"_You don't want to know."_

She awoke to the sound of her alarm and the sun streaming through her window. She cursed, quietly but creatively, and didn't know why.


	4. 4

**A/N:** Hey guys, I think this is the final update of the day. I say I think, but stranger things have happened. Enjoy!

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4.

The air grew colder, thicker, and with it, the feeling of loneliness. She had middle school to worry about, and that meant growing apart. But apart from who? Her friends? Her friends who barely spoke to each other a lot of the time because they didn't have to? Her family, who for some reason seemed to trust her more by herself than even her older sister? The memories?

No, it couldn't be the memories, because there was nothing to forget. There was just something to remember, and on snowy days when there was nothing to think about, she knew about it. Then the very idea of it left her brain and she went to help her mother, or do some homework, not to think of the gap until the world didn't distract her again.

She hated when she remembered she had forgotten something, because there was no way to figure out what it was. The Digimon were gone, and she had no way to contact them. But did she want to was the real question.

If it really was a question at all, what with the fact that it always nagged and brought back images of red.

Yes, red.

Red light, red clothes, blood dripping, so much, so much red.

All of it swum together into a person, a faceless person who maybe always wore a big, childish smile and maybe was just too kind for their own good.

Weren't those people a dime a dozen?

And weren't they always broken in the end?

_Not this one._

But who were they then?


	5. 5

_**A/N:** _Sorry this took so long. Enjoy you guys!

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5.

Akari had taken to sports commentary, though how she knew half of what she did was anyone's guess.

It was fun watching Yuu thrash the competition practically by himself at least. His teammates were there, yeah, but none of them had the _grace _that came from dodging giant bursts of flame or the brightness from knowing weaknesses.

They were _good_, sure, but just _kid _good.

One of them just needed to admit it more.

"Yuu! What the hell, you could have passed it to me, not Fuzushima!"

Akashi Tagiru.

Brash, a little obnoxious, as hard-headed as Yuu himself.

It was always funny to see them argue.

Tagiru was more physical than Yuu, but when it came right down to it, Yuu could flip him bodily over his shoulder and laugh. Akari had seen him do it more than once.

She was sorely tempted to lock them both in a supply closet.

"You mean when you were covered by at least three guys?" Yuu snapped. She swore he was on fire.

Tagiru, all brown hair and young face and blazing passion, was no less vivid in his response. "I could have thought of _something._"

"That would have involved you being able to think."

Akari giggled and for a second the air hummed. It was a familiar beat, loud and fast and hyped up. She jolted straight, and Yuu looked at her, wide eyes and a slowly brightening smile. They thought… they thought and waited… but nothing.

Nothing but a familiar face walking past, spinning headphone and humming a pop song. The face was only familiar from that day, that day where they both were unsettled… by what? By who?

The boy looked at them. He smiled and Akari froze.

"Don't stop on my account," he said, grinning wider. "Just passing through."

He walked on and her heart thudded all the louder.

Akari shook herself. "Who are you?" she murmured, and the lonely feeling returned, thick and raw.

Yuu swallowed. "Akari-san?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you know him?"

"No…"

Tagiru looked at the pair of them, well put-out. "He goes to our school, Yuu."

Yuu turned to him. "Really?"

Tagiru nodded. "Yeah. Don't you know him?"

Yuu put a hand to his temple. "I should… shouldn't I?"


	6. 6

**_A/N:_ **Have a good evening everybody!

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6.

Her dream that night was low and wild, not merely foggy and silent anymore, but red hazed and restless. Anxious drumbeats littered the air, dancing below her feet and making her heart thrum.

This time, she could see the boy a little more clearly. He was still smiling, expression looking as serene as the Cheshire cat. "You're making things more difficult for yourself." He tilted his head. "Unless I'm making things more difficult."

"Maybe you are." Her eyes narrowed. "Who are you?"

"Who do you think I am?"

"Are you the guy who's been watching me?"

The other laughed. "You ought to be careful if you have a stalker, miss. You're a nice lady, I'm sure. You don't deserve that."

"How do I know you're not the one who's stalking me?"

He laughed again. "Can people normally talk in your dreams? Don't be silly!"

She flushed, fists clenched. "Shut _up_, Taiki!"

For a moment, Akari stood there in the wild of the dream, of the brushing of flames tickling at her neck. The other, still in fog barring the healthy darkness of the skin and the messiness of his hair in the wind. sighed, a blissful chuckle leaving his lips. "That's right," he said softly. "My name _is _Taiki, isn't it? It's too bad you won't be able to remember that."

"What, why?"

"Why do you think?"


	7. 7

_**A/N:**_Hello! I hope to wrap this story up soon. So... here goes! Enjoy and let me know what you think!

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7.

She was starting to hate dreaming. Like ever. What was the point if all she was going to do was forget it? If all her brain was going to do was just say, "Sorry, no answers for you!", why even bother?

"It's a perfectly normal event," her father would tell her when she ranted. Then it shouldn't feel weird to always forget, should it? There was really no point to explaining these sorts of things to her parents. They were probably _willingly _forgetting everything. Adults.

But... maybe she and the others were doing the same thing.

What was it they didn't understand?

"It's a who."

She gave Zenjirou a doubtful look from the sidelines. She had been watching him practice, in return for a listening ear. He slashed down again with a forward step, scoffing.

"How dare you doubt a swordsman's intuition?"

"Because you lost to some random kid in that competition." She grinned with mischief. "Wasn't he apparently a rookie?"

Zenjirou flushed. "It was luck and trickery, Akari-kun! I've trained since then! My mind is sharper, my body-"

"Yeah, yeah you big tough guy." She reached up to swat him on the nose. "What was the guy's name anyway? He's your all-mighty eternal rival, right?"

She expected a scoff, a quick answer, and more rambling. What she got instead was a rather puzzled frown. "That is the conundrum... I don't remember!" He paused to lean on his wooden blade. "I usually try to recall his face during practice... but... it just fades away horribly quickly." He rubbed his forehead. "I am certain he must be a great swordsman, but... to be forgotten is..."

Akari frowned. Zenjirou had a better memory than she did... as evidenced by his old entrance exam scores beating her by a pretty good margin. So how could he _not-_

"Hey... Zenjirou."He looked at her, puzzled. "Is it possible that the two of us are forgetting the same person?"


	8. 8

_**A/N: **_Update time!

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8.

_That boy hasn't been in my dreams for a while._

She supposed she should be relieved, but it probably didn't mean anything anyway, since none of them were any closer to the answer than before.

In fact, Akari felt further away now. It was kind of like being dragged from the theater after the movie was over and not seeing the stinger, the last, conclusive piece of the film that either gave more questions or more answers. Not that she really _wanted _to dream of a boy. Her parents would probably be concerned, or they would be if her grades started dropping. Though she would be concerned if her grades started dropping. Her memories weren't worth a failing grade… were they?

She had seen that kid from Tagiru's school around more often though. He was usually at the games, tapping the beat to whatever tune was in his headphones. Sometimes there was a book in hand, sometimes not. He would always grin at her and Yuu, like he was implying something because they usually walked together.

"We do not," she actually said to him once, mildly affronted, and he had only chirped back.

"I know."

It was the most confusing and disturbing thing ever but what was more bizarre was how he stayed around sometimes and just talked to them after each game. He did watch apparently, because he could correct moves and shots like nobody's business. Tagiru seemed to fawn over him like a peanut-butter drenched dog, which Yuu pushed him off the bench for.

Funnily enough, he was familiar. The boy, she meant, not Tagiru. She knew she couldn't forget Tagiru without a mind wipe or two.

"Hey, who are you anyway?" she finally asked, mentally cursing the second the words flew out of her mouth. She sounded like a _boy _herself, damn it.

The other paused mid page-turn. "Eh… I told you my name already."

"You did?"

He nodded, and there was that smile, careless as always. _As always?_ "Mmhm. Don't you remember?"

"No," she said slowly. "I don't… I don't think so. Maybe… I'm probably just forgetting things."

The other laughed. "Gee, that does wonders for my self-esteem."

She rolled her eyes. "Please, you're fine."

He smiled, but this time, Akari couldn't help but notice that it didn't reach his eyes.

Who… was he?


End file.
